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Video by Jarred Gastreich

We met St. Louis' Funky Butt Brass Band in the Grandel Theatre and congregated in the upstairs chapel area.

Drummer Ron Sikes dropped his bass drum in front of a gorgeous second-story window that flooded the room with light. Wearing sunglasses and fedoras, the band gathered around the barefooted drummer. The horn players made horse sounds with their lips to warm them for the impending blasts.

Matt Brinkman's sousaphone was a shiny, slightly-dinged thing of beauty that belched bass notes stunningly similar to a stringed bass. Adam Hucke showed me his plunger mute, with a nickle in the hole where the wooden stick would otherwise fit, and said, "It is just something the old guys did." Aaron Chandler's trombone added a nice element of subversion with a metal, Wu-Tang "W" mounted on it.

Tim Halpin strummed into "Do That Thang" and offered the song's chanted vocals along with saxophone/vocalist Ben Reece. Sikes' kinetic drums danced off the walls and each member took a turn to solo. Their solos switched to the next seamlessly and gave insight into the personality of each band member. "Do That Thang" became a clean distillation of what the Funky Butt Brass Band seems to stand for -- tight, well-played jazz with loads of personality.

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